The College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri, is seeking help from the Supreme Court against their ongoing legal battle against the Biden administration’s gender-identity housing policy.
According to the Alliance Defending Freedom, the university is reaching out to the Supreme Court to review the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that barred College of the Ozarks from pursuing a lawsuit against the president’s administration. The lawsuit was filed because of an FHA policy that could make biological male and female students room together.
In the petition to the Supreme Court, the college notes: “In February 2021—without notice or comment—the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a ‘Directive’ redefining the sex discrimination provisions in the Fair Housing Act (FHA) to include gender identity.”
The petition explained how this rule change for housing could affect the dorm life of their school. “This rewriting of the FHA was an immediate problem for the College of the Ozarks. The College is a Christian educational institution, and while students need not be of a particular religion to attend, they must agree to follow the College’s code of conduct, including dormitory policies. Because the College’s faith teaches that sex is based on male-female biology, not gender identity, the College assigns its dorms, roommates and intimate spaces by sex and communicates that policy to students.”
The College of the Ozarks believes enforcing the government’s policy, it would be damaging their biblical values presented on the campus. However, if they choose to defy the act, there could be consequences to the school’s legal standing. In essence, the school is finding itself in a bind between doing what they know is right and doing what the government is demanding.
One of the pillars of College of the Ozarks is to “foster Christian faith through the integration of faith with learning, living, and service.” In this case, it would mean to uphold a biblical worldview in regards to gender and how their campus living is arranged.
The culture wars raging about gender are not plaguing a small group of people now, but rather the entire nation. This past International Women’s Day, the first lady gave an “International Women of Courage Award” to a biological man. Trans Lives Matters recently went to the Oklahoma Capitol in protest of bills on gender reassignment surgery. The definition of “man” and “woman” is growing bleaker in the larger American society.
We are created in God’s image, either as male or female (Gen. 1:27). It is certain that God created each person with a purpose, on purpose. We cannot let a confused world get the better of our hearts, minds and emotions when the truth of Scripture points to God fashioning each of us uniquely for His glory.
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Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator and Staff Writer intern for Charisma Media.
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